I don’t like writing negative reviews. If a book doesn’t work for me, I leave it alone. I never post negative reviews or even lukewarm ones on the online book distributors. Every author should have a fighting chance in the marketplace. Far be it from me to stand in any author’s way.

I may make an exception to this personal rule when (1) I really hate a book because of what it conveys and (2) the author has already benefited from the huge support of Big Media.

Rave reviews and a big publicity push lured me to buy and read this book. I reveal no plot spoilers when I say the author lays out her premise in the second sentence (“I was fourteen when I was murdered. . .”).

Told in a minimalist voice partly from the point of view of the dead girl “in Heaven,” this is the story of a young teen stalked, raped, and murdered by the despicable serial killer next door who disposes of her body so that it’s never found. The neighbors suspect the ghoul, their family pets are disappearing or found slaughtered, he’s implicated in a series of other murders, but no one does anything about it. The killer never gets caught, never gets punished by justice. That may happen in real life, but as Tom Clancy famously says, “Fiction has to make sense.”

Much is made of the aftermath of the teen’s murder for her family, grief and healing and the like, but it didn’t work for me. It felt like manipulation. You may be titillated or horrified. I was the latter.

From the author of The Garden of Abracadabra, Volume 1 of the Abracadabra Series, onNook,Kindle, and UK Kindle, Summer of Love, A Time Travel (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San FranciscoChronicle Recommended Book) on Nook, Kindle, and UK Kindle, and The Gilded Age, A Time Travel (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book) on Nook,Kindle, and UK Kindle.

If you enjoy a work, please “Like” it, add some stars, write a review on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, and spread the word to your friends. Your response really matters.

More bargains for your reading enjoyment:

Romantic Suspense! Celestial Girl, Book 1: The Heartland (A Lily Modjeska Mystery) is on Nook, Kindle, and UK Kindle! Lily flees Toledo on the Overland train. She must share a seat with Jackson Tremaine and befriends the Celestial Girl, the daughter of a Chinese dignitary. But appearances are not what they seem.

New! Celestial Girl, Book 2: Jewel of the Golden West(A Lily Modjeska Mystery) is on Nook, Kindle, and UK Kindle! Lily and Jackson arrive in San Francisco and discover the murder of an immigration official connected with the Celestial Girl. She and Jackson are compelled into a dangerous murder investigation. Meanwhile, as they begin a hot affair, a contract for murder is taken out on Lily’s life.

Coming soon!Celestial Girl, Book 3: The Celestial Kingdom, which will include Book 3: The Celestial Kingdom, and Book 4: Terminus. The Omnibus Edition will include all three books.

Of The Gilded Age, the New York Times Book Review said, “A winning mixture of intelligence and passion.”

Urban fantasy! The Garden of Abracadabra is available in three affordable installments. Begin with Book 1: Life’s Journey on Nook,Kindle, and UK Kindle.

The Bantam classic, Summer of Love is available in seven affordable installments. Begin at the beginning onNook, Kindle, orUK Kindle

Literary science fiction! And don’t miss TOMORROW’S CHILD, The Story That Sold To The Movies. This began as a medical documentary, then got published in Omni Magazine as a lead story, and finally sold to Universal Pictures, where the project is now in development. On Nook, Kindle, and UK Kindle.